‘The Following’ season 2, episode 3 review: Now sponsored by Microsoft

What in the world is “The Following” doing? The last thing we need to do is see Mike Weston at some point, in the middle of his investigation, try to root around for something on his SkyDrive. Yes, we know that there are many things out there more important in this episode than some product placement, but seeing it in this sort of show is incredibly frustrating. If you’re going to have it, don’t have the characters talk about like it is some part of everyday conversation. When was the last time you actually heard someone talking about a SkyDrive? The answer to that is most likely “never.” It just doesn’t happen.

Away from Microsoft making money off of this show, this was another one of those episodes meant to truly “shock” us … and in some ways it did. While we expected to see Mandy’s mother go at some point (since the whole “fixing” Joe Carroll thing was not going to pan out), Mandy actually surviving is something that we didn’t imagine. We felt like Joe would see her sheepishness and lack of confidence as some sort of liability, and do away with her in that fire at the end.

As for Lily being one of the bad guys, we knew that there was probably not going to be a way in which this story played out the same way as it did with Claire last year. This was far more keenly planned and orchestrated, but it does make a little bit of sense now why she was left alive on the subway. We’re surprised that Ryan Hardy didn’t think about that, or how, despite the “dangerous” situations she was in, she was never seriously harmed.

So once again, Hardy and the FBI look like idiots, and for a group if crazy people, the followers are once again the smartest people in the room. We’ve been down this road before, and this is probably where we are going to head for the rest of the season. We liked this episode more than the one before, largely because it felt a little less focused on just killing people with a side of more killing. However, let’s not pretend that it was anything great, either. Most of these shockers were really already in vein with what we know the show to be. Grade: B-.

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Photo: Fox